Never Let Go
by WeAreShootingStars
Summary: Just when Reiji and Eren thought they were free, just as they made it to Eren's homeland, a single shot threatens to take all that they worked for away. And as he fell, Eren could only stand and watch... Continuation of the ending... Please R&R!


**A/N: because the anime's ending sucked... I had to finish it myself. This is my first fanfic though, so any/all criticism is greatly valued. :)**  
><strong>-Stars<strong>

**Warning: Rated T for blood. Though if you get queasy at blood, how did you watch Phantom?**

**Disclaimer: Seriously?! If I owned Phantom, the freaking ending wouldn't have ended like that! *cough* Sorry, rant... *mumbles* **

**Okay, on to da story!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1- End of the Beginning<strong>

The shot was almost silent.

A 9 millimeter Parabellum fired through a silencer. Only the ears of one familiarized by years of experience with guns would recognize the faint sound. And it was the last noise the either of them expected to hear in this new found paradise. Eren spun around to the sight she never hoped to see.

Reiji. The slight smile adorning his lips was marred with a look of surprise. The world seemed to stand still as he stood swaying, and slowly fell sideways. Eren's lips moved, but no sound came out. The only thing in motion was Reiji, slowly falling. Falling.

He hit the earth with a sickening thump, and Eren found her voice.

"REIJI!"

She rushed over to the boy. He was on his side, gasping for breath, eyes closed. "Reiji!" Eren knelt next to him and gently rolled him onto his back. Her breath caught in her throat. There was a perfect hole through his shirt, 4 centimeters to the left of his heart. Already, blood was bubbling up, staining his white shirt a bright crimson in a quickly growing circle.

Eren stared at the wound in shock. They had just found her true home. She was sure her memories would return to her in the place. The place in her dreams: green and endless blue and white. This paradise was not to be tainted with red. Red was their past. The two of them were going to start a new life, with new identities. Together. Reiji had promised her that. Here, she had smiled for the first time.

But no one can escape their own past.

"E-Eren..." Reiji's shaky voice woke her from her frozen state. She lifted her eyes to his pale face. His dark eyes met hers as he lifted his hand to brush her cheek. "Please...p-please don't...cry..."

Eren hadn't noticed the tears trickling down her face. She didn't bother to wipe them away though, only grabbed his hand in both of hers. "I didn't know I was crying. I didn't remember what it felt like to cry." She squeezed her eyes shut but more tears leaked through. "I'm sorry," She sniffed.

"E-Eren..." Reiji began, but he was cut off by a coughing fit. Eren held his hand tightly. When it was over, dark blood spotted Reiji's lips and chin. His chest strained as he sucked in each painful breath. Eren stared at her gasping friend for a moment. Suddenly, determination lit her eyes. "I will not let Reiji die." She whispered to herself.

Eren hastily wiped the tears off her cheeks and leaned over Reiji to search his jacket pockets. She retrieved his pocket knife, grabbed hold of his jacket and began to carefully cut through the thick fabric as quickly as she could.

"Wh-what... are you... doing?" Reiji asked weakly once he had recovered enough breath to speak.

"I will not let you die, Reiji."

The boy only nodded and closed his eyes again, focusing all his energy on simply breathing. Eren finished cutting several strips of material from the jacket. Folding them hastily, she laid the stack in her lap before cutting away Reiji's t-shirt. The amount of blood covering his chest would have made most regular girls sick, but Eren was not a regular girl. The only life she could remember before meeting Reiji was the one controlled by Master. Her purpose then had been only to spill blood. Now, she was desperately trying to keep that precious life stream inside.

Eren pressed a folded strip of jacket material over the bullet wound, which was still bleeding profusely. "It must have hit an artery," she thought aloud. She glanced down at her friend. He was fading fast. The ground around him was dark with blood. '_The bullet must have entered in his back. I need to stop the bleeding on both sides. But how?!_' Keeping one hand pressed hard against the wound, Eren grabbed another strip to put over the first. Her hands were sticky with his blood. 'I need to bind a wad of cloth to the hole in his back,' she thought as she shrugged off her jacket. She continued pressing one of her hands to her friend's bleeding chest.

"Reiji, can you hear me?"

His eyelids fluttered, but there was no other response. Eren tried again, louder. "Reiji!

Reiji's face was too pale. His body—too still. Eren was growing panicky. Her heart hammered in her ears. Under her bloodstained hands, his chest still rose and fell, but it was weak. Erratic. 'He's slipping into shock!' The realization came into her mind like a knife. "Reiji! Wake up! You can't fall asleep on me!" She called, gently slapping his face.

Reiji groaned slightly.

"Good. Reiji, I'm going to roll you over to put a compress on your back. Okay?" Somehow, even though Eren knew Reiji probably couldn't even hear what she was saying, she felt more at ease as she spoke to him. It helped her think more rationally. She gently rolled him on his side and pressed a small stack of strips against the bullet's entrance. Then she kept them in place by tying her jacket's sleeves over the strips and tight around his chest. He barely made a sound the whole procedure.

Once Reiji's wounds were bandaged to the best of her ability, Eren searched for her cell phone. It was a cheap one; she and Reiji had destroyed their previous phones. Finding it, she flipped it open and called the emergency number they had been handed on the tour bus. The operator didn't speak her language, but understood the urgency and near hysteria in her voice.

Eren's hands were shaking as she closed the phone. She could only hope that they were able to track the location of the call. She took a deep breath and turned back to Reiji's comatose body, checking the tightness of the "bandages". Crimson was slowly seeping through the fabric, though not with the intensity of before. Reiji's skin had a slightly gray tinge.

Within twenty minutes, Eren began to hear a faint siren. She looked at the boy. "Oh Reiji..." she whispered as she clasped his cold hand, "Please be okay..."

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><p><em>"Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks." <em>-Regina Brett

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><p><strong>Still debating whether I should continue this. Ideas? Anything I need to fiximprove? :)**

**PLEASE REVIEW! (You know how much _you_ like to get reviews...) ;]**


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